Art gallery launches initiative for food security, sustainability

The Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (KWAG) is working to tackle the intersecting challenges of food insecurity and ecological sustainability through a new collaborative gardening project.

The 50/50 Garden of Resilience is the newest addition to the KWAG Sculpture Garden. It will provide an opportunity for community members to grow their own organic fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers.

“KWAG understands the garden as site, model and gallery,” the project’s website states. “As a site, it is a functioning community garden that will grow organic fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers. As a model, it is a decolonial gesture that inverts capitalist expectations of land value and outdated conceptions of aesthetic value and landscaping. As a gallery, the garden will be regularly programmed, activated and cared for, just like our internal gallery spaces.”

A key component of the initiative is its commitment to help the region work to address food insecurity. The latest data from the Food Bank of Waterloo Region shows that the organization recorded 42,000 visits in the month of December. That marked a 25 per cent increase from the same month in 2023.

Faced with already rising inflation, the U.S. tariffs have also spiked certain food prices, particularly produce that is grown south of the border. As other costs of living are also on the rise, it is increasingly hard for a larger number of residents to access sustainable food.

Part of the Garden of Resilience’s mission is to dedicate at least 50 per cent of annual production from the garden to mutual aid efforts that will directly support the Kitchener-Waterloo community.

“The garden will be a site for community members to grow food and flowers to be consumed by the gardeners and redirected back into the community,”Darryn
Doull, Curator of Exhibitions and Programs at KWAG, said in a press release. “It will also serve as a model for de-centering decision-making from the bureaucracy of the institution as we learn from the land and its needs.”

In keeping with KWAG’s mission to inspire and challenge “through a deepened understanding of ourselves, our cultures, and our communities,” the project’s core focus is sustainability.

“KWAG seeks to learn from the garden and understand how we can best position ourselves to care for our immediate neighbors and local ecologies,” the project site says.

The organization says the garden will serve as a living model for its commitment to eco-friendly initiatives and aims to be a leader in sustainable exhibition production.

The KWAG is also starting a Gardener-in-Residence program which invites local artists from the community to explore eco-conscious art-making, foster creative expression and promote environmental activism and education.

The 50/50 Garden of Resilience is funded by TD Friends of the Environment Foundation and WRCF’s Community Grants program.

The official garden launch celebration will take place on May 24 and the garden will be open until October.